Dear Josh,
One week ago, we launched the Rockez McDaniel Bailout, a dedicated and direct action to liberate as many people as we can from the deadly conditions at the jail at 201 Poplar. We’re taking action because the Shelby County Sheriff will not. We’re taking action because Rockez McDaniel, his family, and the other families who have suffered this same fate deserve better.
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Daily Memphian/Patrick Lantrip
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| By the time he lost his life, Mr. McDaniel should have received the mental health care he needed, should have been taken to court three times, should have been assigned an attorney, and should have been released from custody. Because of the negligence and incompetence of the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office, none of those things happened, and Mr. McDaniel became the 7th person to die in the jail this year.
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Buying freedom for people who are currently trapped in these horrific circumstances is what this bailout is all about.
In the last seven days, we’ve managed to pay bail for 18 people, using $31,850 in funds from the Memphis Community Bail Fund. These men and women have been able to return to their homes and lives while they await their day in court. Once they dispose of their case, that money is returned to us, and we will use it to pay bail for more people. If you'd like to support our bailout, visit justcity.org.
Right now, there are nearly 200 people stuck in the jail’s intake area – a space meant for no more than 50 people for a few hours. Some of the people in intake have been there for a week or more. It shouldn’t be this way and doesn’t have to be, but we’re going to keep working until every person who deserves to be out there gets out of there.
When we held our press conference to announce the Rockez McDaniel Bailout, alongside his brother and a broad coalition of community partners, we issued three very common sense - but very urgent – demands to the Sheriff:
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Former Sheriff Mark Luttrell told us exactly how we should respond to the crisis at the jail.
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To get a deeper perspective on these issues, last week I spoke with former Shelby County Mayor and Sheriff Mark Luttrell for the latest episode of our podcast, The Permanent Record. When he became Sheriff more than 20 years ago, Luttrell inherited a very unstable and chaotic situation at the Shelby County Jail. Violence, poor management, and overcrowding were the norm. Under his leadership, the jail went from a deadly scourge on our community to a model facility, and he made headlines because of the turnaround.
We invited him on to discuss that jail turnaround – and whether the same approach could work again today. Click here to listen and share.
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By now, I’m sure you’ve seen the news: a consortium of local real estate brokers and non-local architects recently took it upon themselves to make plans for a new, 71-acre criminal justice complex in the New Chicago neighborhood of Memphis. They gave a presentation to the Shelby County Commission on Wednesday morning, and then a Commissioner introduced a surprise resolution to authorize payment of an initial fee of $350,000 that would have allowed them to move forward with the full project.
We, along with many other local leaders, have serious questions about this proposal, not the least of which is: who granted them the authorization to do this?
In any event, we need to remember that a new jail – however much it ultimately costs taxpayers – would not have saved Rockez McDaniel. It wouldn’t have saved any of the dozens of other men who have died over the last six years in that jail.
Unless we make sweeping changes to the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office and other agencies responsible for pretrial detention right now, building a new Cage City in one of Memphis most historic neighborhoods won’t prevent the next dozen deaths either.
If you have concerns about this plan - and you should – please reach out to your County Commissioner and tell them: no new jail without new oversight.
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